The opening ceremonies of the 22nd Winter Olympics took place earlier today, marking the second time the Games are being held on (now capitalist) Russian soil. As this is also thirty years to the date since the Winter Games opened in Sarajevo, in what was then-Communist Yugoslavia, let’s take a look at that Olympic city, and of course, its cars during the ten year span surrounding the 1984 Winter Games.

Many people may have forgotten that the early-mid ’80s were the height of the Cold War, but after the boycotting of the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow, the choice (in 1976) of Sarajevo, in non-aligned Yugoslavia, seemed like a very well-planned turn of decision making.

The Yugo may be the most enduring legacy of its home country’s car culture, but Sarajevo was home to TAS, a factory that built the VW Golf Mk1 and 2, in addition to the Caddy, and formerly, the Beetle and NSU Prinz.

These shiny new red cars are lined up in front of one of the city’s former shopping malls. By the end of the decade, the Golf Mk2 was seemingly the most common car in its Balkan hometown.

Of course, the cars on Sarajevo’s streets were a diverse mix of models from both the Western world and the Eastern bloc. The only model I can clearly identify in this picture is the red Opel Rekord D Kadett B. I’m sure some of our readers will be able to name a couple more. As it is Big Truck Week, feel free to name some of the larger trucks and buses as well.

In this late ’70s photo, I see a Fiat 124, and NSU Prinz, a Renault 8/10, a Zastava 750 (Fiat 600 clone, affectionately called Fićo, by the Yugoslavs) and a few models I cannot readily name. Anyone want to guess some of the others?

As we see in this late ’80s photo, Golfs have displaced a lot of other models from the cityscape but trams, a big part of Sarajevo’s history, remained popular. Europe’s first electric tram was installed in the city during its brief period under Hapsburg rule, both transporting its residents and serving as a testbed for a similar system planned for Vienna.

Given this week’s theme, see if you can name some of these trams.

The blue car speeding past the Holiday Inn is the Zastava 101, a five-door version of the Fiat 128. If someone can identify the tiny robin’s egg blue van parked on the grass near the driveway of the hotel, please do so (to the left of the tram). Also, is the cobalt blue car between them a Mark 2 Escort in rally garb??

This Mercedes W111, shot in 1986 in front of the Bristol Hotel, shows a car unlikely to be seen in either the Eastern Bloc or in Europe’s Western countries by that time. With both a healthy market for consumer goods and less wealth than some of its Western neighbors, Yugoslavia had a car culture distinct from the rest of the continent.

This mid ’70s photo of a housing estate shows, among other cars, a Renault 4, a Citroen GS, a Fiat 1300 and a Citroen Dyane. All were built domestically. With a generally healthy disposable income and many of life’s greater expenses covered by the state, more than a few families chose to own a car. As we see, there were plenty of choices.
In this picture of the city’s Austro-Hungarian quarter, we see a German Ford Grenada, a Fiat 124 (or is it a Lada?) and a pea-green model between the two. Is it a Skoda 130?

This photo shows, at the left, Mitsubishi’s official sponsorship of the oh-so-’80s Sarajevo Games, with a prominently displayed logo to the left of the hockey stadium. Enlarge the picture to name the cars at the bottom of the photo. The Zastava 750, and Mk1 Golf are some of the easier models to identify.

I spy a Mk1 Escort in this photo taken in front of the city’s main cathedral. Anyone care to guess the model in front of it with the four round taillights?

In case you couldn’t tell, this is one city high on my list of places to visit. In the Turkish quarter, we see another Zastava 101, behind the infamous Zastava Koral (Yugo), as well as a Wartburg. It seems this was one of the better Eastern Bloc cars, bought by many who had their choice of a number of Western models. Note the “YU” sticker on the back of the white 101, a reminder of the days when Yugoslavs could enter most Western European countries without a visa.
More Zastava 750s in this 1983 photo. These models were built until 1985 before finally being phased out. Which would you rather have: a Zastava 750/Fiat 600 or a Fiat 127-based Zastava Koral/Yugo? Note the poster of Vučko, the cuddly lupine mascot of the ’84 Winter Games, on the side of the older building.

Here he is again, waving goodbye during the closing ceremony. I am studiously trying to avoid making any negative comments about the Sochi Olympics, because there has been enough news coverage which has done so already. As we watch the games over the next few weeks, try and remember the city for which hosting a famously well-organized Winter Games remains a beautiful memory.

26 Comments

Ah the 1984 Sarajavo Olympics. For the longest time I had forgotten about it because as an American, it was all about the Summer Olympics in LA that same year and all the marketing(such as Sam the Eagle and all the promos McDonalds gave out)

Sarajavo was a beautiful city and a trajic story of what happened to it and the Balkans in the 1990’s. At least in the early to mid 1980’s the area was still peaceful.

McDonald’s famously lost their shirt on those promos because of the Soviet-bloc boycott of the summer games. Most of the “free Big Mac if the USA wins” coupons were in sports dominated by Russia, East Germany etc.

My only experience with communist countries in the ’80s was East Germany. Sarajevo looks a lot nicer than I remember of the DDR. Those Golfs on the train cars look crisp; I’d like to have one now. Thanks. I learned something from this posting.

Well, Yugoslavia wasn’t a Communist-bloc country in the same fashion as the others were, as is evidenced by the mere existence of Holiday Inn and that Mitsubishi advert. Yugoslavia instead existed in a strange state between both systems, in a way.

“This Mercedes W111, shot in 1986 in front of the Bristol Hotel, shows a car unlikely to be seen in either the Eastern Bloc or in Europe’s Western countries by that time. With both a healthy market for consumer goods and less wealth than some of its Western neighbors, Yugoslavia had a car culture distinct from the rest of the continent.”

From 1960s onwards, Yugoslavia (like many Southern European coutries like Italy, Greece, Spain or Turkey) allowed (if not encouraged) migration of ‘Gastarbeiter’ who moved temporarily to West Germany to work there. Most of them worked blue-collar jobs but when it cema to buying a car, it had to be a big sedan, usually a Mercedes – so most of these guys bought a used Mercedes. Even if it was an old(er) car, it was a proof to themselves and to folks back home that they made it.

Truck on the image #5 is an iconic TAM made on the license of Magirus Deutz. It was a very common sight (and sound) of the screaming air-cooled diesel. Also very old fashioned design, with narrow cabin and separate fenders and lights. later it was used in many war films, pretending to be Nazi military truck of the ww2, although I believe it was a post war design.

Also there is a roof of the Skoda 1000MB (MB stands for Mlada Boleslava), but we would usually refer to it as “1000 Malih Bolesti”, meaning “Thousand little ailments”. In front of the Skoda is a Lada, in front of the red Kadett is one Zastava 101 and Watrburg station wagon.
Those Wartburgs were old fashioned but quite reliable. If you don’t mind smelly and thirsty 2 stroke 3 cilinder engine, it wasn’t too bad (i guess that some of famous German quality find their way into it, even behind the iron curtain). And it was quite peppy in city traffic, too.
(I will digress here, the other popular East German product here was MZ 250 motorcycle, also old fashioned but sturdy and comfortable).
OK, FF to Image #6: The van in the background is also TAM, based on the 1964 Ford Taunus Transit

This cab design was later used for small trucks, nicknamed “Tamić” meaning “a small TAM”.

Image #11:
Mercedes was recognized early in the post war years as a quality item, used at first by senior party members and directors of larger state owned companies. Starting at mid sixties, many people went to work in Western Europe, and after 10 years or so, some of those people start showing up with their Opel Rekords and Mercedeses. This was the way mercedes managed to slowly open the market here. And it was perfect for Taxi service.

Image #14 Skenderija olympic hall.
I remember it very well, I was sent there to fix the illumination system that my company installed a year before.

Image #15 – that would be the Opel Rekord B

And that TAM truck image – it ended at the end of the post, don’t know why 🙂

How much east bloc made cars in YUG was cheaper than western ones. Maybe somebody can remember differences between Lada 1600, VW Golf mk I, and Mercedes W123. Was mercedeses available officialy or only imported by guest workers?

Maybe can somebody tell how was with western cars in Warsaw pact countries? Exploring some photos on web I found one taken on 1981 in Poland MB W123 with polish licenze plates

Great post, superb pictures! Fascinating to see the mixture between western and eastern cars there – Zastavas, Ladas, Benzes, VWs. Helped that many western cars were built in Yugoslavia itself although little remains of that thriving industry today, the Golfs of Sarajevo are famous and the first-gen Caddys were never built in Germany but at TAS. As a result of the high production numbers of the ’70s and ’80s, followed by the tragic Yugoslav Wars and economic downturn of the ’90s, many of those western cars survive till today. While nearly extinct elsewhere, Opel Kadetts are still a common sight in the streets of Belgrade (can’t speak for Sarajevo since I haven’t been there – yet).

The one car of these pictures by far the most common today is, of course, the Yugo/Zastava Koral. Production of them ended only in late 2008, but not before a number of updated versions appeared. Idea for a writeup?

Great subject and photos Perry! This really hit the spot for me, as in addition to cars, I am an avid European History and Olympic buff. Out of pure curiosity, where did you obtain these great vintage photos?

Some funny things I noticed:
1) In the third picture, all the VW Golfs are red – quite appropriate for a communist country
2) The communist-styled architecture of the Holiday Inn
3) The first trolley picture reminds me of a scene from the James Bond film “The Living Daylights”. It took place in Bratislava, but looks similar enough.

Yugoslavia was a total exception within the Eastern Bloc. As a popular tourist destination (and a proper western-cash-cow as such) it was decided the country would be much more open towards the west. It also meant plenty of possibilities for the regular citizen – as the choice of cars in the pictures shows…

During that period if you lived in Czechoslovakia – you could only have one of the Skodas or Lada – if you were a VIP, artist or someone working on contracts in other East-bloc country.
If you lived in East Germany – you couldn’t drive anything other than domestic Wartburg, cheaper Trabant or – if you were “someone” – as in Czechoslovakia – a Lada.

In Poland we had mostly local production licensed Fiat cars – most popular being the 126, second a 125 and a derivative of the 125 – FSO Polonez.
If you were trully important you could have a Lada, Skoda, Wartburg and top execs and party members were driving Wolga’s, Fiat 131 and 132’s.

My first car was a Zastava 101 – although mine was built in Poland under license and called Zastava 1100p. It was the same design as a Yugoslavian original, derived from both – Italian Fiat 128 and French Simca 1100. It was a very good, reliable and brillantly packaged car I remember with high esteem. It was much faster than anything except a Lada, drove brillantly thanks to FWD and good balance and kept it’s market value very well – even in those crazy times where you could drive away from the dealership to the first car market and sell your – already used – car for much more than you paid.

I think I will start searching for similar pictures of polish streets to show the rest of you how it was to live in the eastern bloc at that time.

You in the U.S. were fighting with CAFE regulations and “malaise” R&D, guys in the UK had tragic quality issues and we… were driving cars conceived in the 50’s (like the Syrena) and were not able to buy even those dinosaurs… 🙁

I am happy that those who lived in DDR, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia are now free and can drive whatever they want. I’ve now seen Lexuses in Prague and Fords in Slovakia and it is better that way. In 1980 I had seen the DDR (complete with Vopos shaking me down on the autobahn from Hamburg in a car with Dutch plates), didn’t like it and was driving a 280CE back home in the USA. Freedom’s better!

I know it sounds strange to anyone that a Lada could be a benchmark for anything even loosely related to speed or sportiness, but you shuold know one thing.

The soviet bloc bought from Fiat a couple of licenses.

Putting aside the small, 2-aircooled-cylinder-in-the back “126” I will focus on two easily mistaken models produced in Poland and Russia.

Russia got the license for Fiat 124 – European Car of the Year for 1967. It was a very modern, well designed and brillantly packaged midsize limousine and station wagon. Well balanced, fast, frugal, fun to drive – nearly as good as later small BMW. 😉
The Russians got the car and started tinkering – they improved the heating system, adapted the suspension to small crater fields (they call it “roads”) and simplified many production processes to keep it as simple as possible. The end result was not as brisk or well built as an Italian original, but it was still a quite modern car for the soviet bloc.

On the other hand Poland received it’s own license for Fiat 125. Looking at appearances only we could say it was far better choice. More modern design, slightly larger body – a truly better version of the same basic design, as they were sharing same cabin.
But when you looked deeper – it revealed huge differences.

The Italian original 125 had a very modern 1.6 DOHC engine with 90 bhp and great characteristics. Later it was improved and had a 100bhp engine, optional automatic transmission and many other goodies.

Poles were unfortunately not that lucky. The country didn’t have enough money to buy the whole car, so the decission was made that we will receive a modern sheetmetal, but we will have to live with all the technology of 125’s predecessor – the Fiat 1300/1500 – a construction that was over 8 years older.

Therefore if you compared a modern DOHC engine of an original Fiat 125 to the pathetic engine of polish 125p – you could not believe those were basically siblings.

That’s why my lighter and FWDriven Zastava with only 55bhp could easily outrun a polish Fiat 125p 1300 but could not even dream about keeping up with much more modern Lada…

USSR cars were abundant in Northern Iran in the 1960s , specially Volgas, Pobedas and Moscovitches,
They had mainly an agricultural reputation, not fast or stylish but sturdy and reliable.
That image changed once Lada 1500 was imported in mid 1970s.
I had the occasion of driving one of them,I was surprised at how the car was fast and stable, the overhead cam engine was eager and went up in revs, the steering was direct, light and neutral, the suspension was firm and damped all pot holes,
overall it was far better a car than our national Paykan ( Hillman Hunter).
I agree that it could be considered a 80% scale BMW2002,
at 50% price of a Beemer, that Sovietter was certainly a bargain.

How much east bloc made cars in YUG was cheaper than western ones. Maybe somebody can remember differences between Lada 1600, VW Golf mk I, and Mercedes W123. Was mercedeses available officialy or only imported by guest workers?

Maybe can somebody tell how was with western cars in Warsaw pact countries? Exploring some photos on web I found one taken on 1981 in Poland MB W123 with polish licenze plates

Oh my, that picture of the Turkish quarter… I remember being there in 1994, the scenary was very different. Snipers were still shooting, we wore helmets and bulletproof vests, and used to speed along that very same road in Humvees. No cars left, and no smiles: I shall never forget the drama on the kids faces while watching us pass by.

Great post!! I definitely enjoyed the photos and the explanation you gave of these. I went to Slovenia in 1995 to attend an Amnesty International meeting in Ljubljana.

After 2 weeks in the young republic, we made friends with some of the local volunteers and one of them drove her dad´s VW Golf TAS. You could see many of these as well as the VW Beetle. All VW products had a J (jugoslavija) in the back and in the case of the Golf, the TAS acronym on the front grille. There were also a many Renault 5 (second generation) probably built at Renault’s factory in Novo Mesto (Slovenia).

Another common sight was the TAM trucks. I believe these were built in Maribor, Slovenia (therefore the M in TAM).